Experience with Objectivism

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(Some background: http://blairrockefellerpoll.uark.edu/6107.php )
A side-topic, and perhaps a foundational one, for the Ferguson situation is the issue of racism in the USA.
When I look at the national conversation about Ferguson, I detect a conversation that's often two sides talking past each other.
I think the root of this problem is a decidedly different view of racism in the USA, and the practical effects of racism, based on, well, one's race.
To put the problem in the simplest--and perhaps oversimplified--terms, the majority of white people think there's not very much racism, and it's no big deal when it does exist, and the majority of black people think pretty much the opposite.
Regardless of what "the masses" think, however, I was wondering what people here thought...